BURTON on the Wolds triathlete Ben Dijkstra claimed a place on the podium at the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final in Rotterdam at the weekend.

Dijkstra repeated the junior world championship bronze he won in Cozumel last year with a fantastic run seeing the 18-year-old move from seventh after the bike phase to earn his place on the podium behind Aussie Matthew Hauser who won gold and Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca who took the silver medal.

The junior men’s race kicked off the second day of competition at the grand final Rotterdam event, with 79 athletes diving into the water for a 750 metre swim which saw Hauser lead the race into the bike phase of the event.

The front pack grouped 12 men together with Hauser leading the charge. After only one lap down the group whittled down to nine, which contained names such as Hauser, Vilaca, Vetle Bergsvik Thorn (NOR), Endre Espedal (NOR), Chase Mcqueen (USA) and James Chantler (GBR).

The pack then stayed together, gaining ground on a small chase pack led by Dijkstra who was 22 seconds back.

Entering into the second transition area, the leaders had increased their gap to about 48 seconds to get in front on the run but Dijkstra dug deep to produce a great run.

After lap one he was still in the seventh position after having to make up time from the bike. It was in the final kilometre where he picked off three men in front of him to clinch the bronze.

After the race Dijkstra said: “I’m over the moon to sign off my junior career with another bronze.”